BOSTON - In the fifth inning of Saturday's 7-3 loss to Seattle, Red Sox catcher David Ross was involved in a play that tells much about where this season has gone - and might offer a clue as to where it is going.

Frustrated after striking out to end the inning, Ross walked back to the bench. The ball, meanwhile, bounced off catcher Jesus Sucre and rolled 30 feet away.

Baseball's unwritten rules have come to include a lack of interest in running to first and forcing a throw on dropped third strikes. Only rookies seem prone to hustle out the play, which is almost always a lost cause but still reflects a dedication to play the game 100 percent.

But this was no ordinary dropped third strike that dropped at the catcher's feet. The time, the ball bounced well up the third-base line, almost like a good bunt, yet Ross still made no effort to force a throw that likely would have retired him with ease.

The moment was especially telling because Ross is one of the most high-quality individuals on the Red Sox. He is a veteran leader and a mentor, a man of great character and the type whose value comes partly from the example he sets for others.

Because Ross did not run, no throw was needed. In a season that went over the cliff weeks ago, the Red Sox are struggling with their own frustration, raising the question of whether they are not only losing but packing it in.

The manager says no.

"There's still a lot of fight in this group. There's a lot of frustration, but it doesn't take from the competitiveness,'' Farrell said after Boston's seventh straight loss.

Doesn't it? Farrell was alluding to a later episode with Ross, who was called out on a checked-swing third strike in the eighth inning, then went ballistic at the call and got ejected for the first time in his 13-year career.

On the surface, getting tossed by first-base umpire Vic Carapazza showed Ross still had that fighting spirit. But crabbing about a close call is a bad way to show it, certainly when stacked against the earlier play that begged Ross to force Sucre to get the rolling baseball and throw it across the diamond - whether it resulted in an easy out or not.

The Red Sox are human beings. A poor season that's getting worse has deflated and disillusioned them, and don't let any rah-rah talk from the clubhouse fool you otherwise.

The young kids are still hustling, because that's what young kids do. They are trying to earn spots on the team in 2015.

Yoenis Cespedes is no kid, but he runs out everything. That's rare for a slugger, especially in Boston, where the indulgence of loafing by Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz has convinced fans that's how everybody does it.

Dustin Pedroia still does a lot of running around, though the body language reveals his own frustration at losing. That was also the case with Ross, as it has been with others.

It does not make them baseball scofflaws, only human beings who never imagined they'd be 17 games under .500 and in last place on Aug. 23.

But that's where they are, and it will be interesting to see whether these Red Sox put up a better fight than they did in 2012, when the team was accused of quitting on Bobby Valentine, a manager they did not respect.

Valentine later said that Connie Mack could not have won with the lineup he had in September, after David Ortiz was shelved for the season and the Red Sox dumped their high-priced, high-maintenance talent on the Dodgers. Similarly, Farrell can't be expected to work miracles with the cast he's sending out each night.

When Clay Buchholz is your "ace,'' and the bottom of your order is filled with sub-.200 hitters - I mean, come on.

Farrell is being absolved from blame. I don't dispute that.

But if the Red Sox start going through the motions for a man they highly respect, it would validate former Houston Astros manager Larry Dierker, who once said fans far overrate the influence of managers on their major league teams.

It might even vindicate Valentine, at least a little bit.

The Red Sox were accused of tuning out Terry Francona in 2011, when a playoff spot was frittered away. Quitting on Valentine is accepted as fact, not analysis - and he got the blame for losing the troops' respect.

Farrell was hailed as a true leader, a reputation that still has merit, even as he struggles through his third non-winning season in four years as a major league manager.

He is not one to give the Gipper speech, nor should he be. It won't work here.

And maybe he's right. Maybe the Red Sox and fighting and scrapping and clawing, giving no quarter despite a growing pile of maddening defeats.

I'm not comfortable, judging heart and effort from the TV or the press box. What I do know is that the only reason to keep playing hard is for pride, but the fans are owed that and the players - as fed up with the whole situation as they are - owe it to themselves.

It's not easy. They can read the standings.

Playing hard under duress will show itself in small but meaningful ways. Hustling out every play is one way, maybe the best.

Getting tossed out of frustration is not. The Red Sox have 33 games to go before the season mercifully ends, and it will be worth seeing if they at least go down kicking and screaming, as opposed to only saying they are.